[Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia (Foundation) endowment

[Theo10011]

Going back to the original discussion. Werespielchequer added a proposal to
the page[1] that is worth looking at.

A good way would be to start small and move the reserve WMF carries already
and invest them, then start transferring the larger donations and
soliciting for the fund to large benefactors. Even with a target of $100M
this could be achieved between 5-10 years depending on how aggressively its
pursued.

A fund like this could easily be established as a charitable trust under
WMF, which would then provide WMF with an annual donation. Donations
directly to the trust would also be tax-deductible. I'm not sure what the
US tax law is on capital gains tax for such trusts but something like this
would have to be established with an indefinite target. The trust should be
expected to exist in perpetuity, and grow with the requirements at the same
time. Even in unforeseen cases, the primary goal of the trust should be to
keep the projects online indefinitely, no 20-30 or even 100 year target -
even if the projects aren't relevant, even if WMF no longer exists - A
trust would ensure there always is a WMF or someone there to run the
projects and carry on the goal.

Regards
Theo

[1]https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Endowment#Proposal

On Fri, Mar 15, 2013 at 8:33 AM, Federico Leva (Nemo) <nemowiki at gmail.com>wrote:

> Liam Wyatt, 15/03/2013 02:55:
>
>  On 15 March 2013 01:51, Erik Moeller <erik at wikimedia.org> wrote:
>>
>>  The "what's the level required
>>> for bare survival" question is, IMO, only of marginal interest,
>>> because it is much more desirable, and should be very much possible,
>>> to raise funds for sustaining our mission in perpetuity.
>>>
>>>
>> Perhaps a more useful measure is to look at the differentiation in the WMF
>> budget between what is considered "core" and what is approved by the FDC.
>>
>
> I seriously doubt so. Let's not abuse measures and definitions for
> purposes other than those they were designed for, please.
>
> Nemo
>
>
> ______________________________**_________________
> Wikimedia-l mailing list
> Wikimedia-l at lists.wikimedia.**org <Wikimedia-l at lists.wikimedia.org>
> Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/**mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l<https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l>
>